A fascinating difference in smartphone buying behaviour got highlighted today. In the US, Apple has double the market share of its nearest competitor, Samsung. However, in The Netherlands, the swamp I call home, the situation is completely reversed; Apple sits at 10% of the smartphone market, Samsung at 19.6%. Is this indicative of Europe as a whole? Could German, French, Polish, British, Spanish, Italian, etc. readers give local information from their own countries? I'm intrigued.

Now I understand why The Netherlands is plural: there are several and you live in another one than me. :-p

People pick Android phones because they are cheap, appear to be cheap or are part of some kind of offer. People want them because they can Internet with it and send Whatsapp messages. Notice how "Android" is often omitted in advertising, it's not a selling point.

iPhones are sold to the same people, but also to (a lot of) people who want an iPhone because of what it can do (which is more than surfing and sending messages). This would probably explain why iPhone users are actual users and not just owners like most Android owners are who just want a phone.

I think Android is not part of the marketing because people don't care about the operating system or the software. For a company like Apple, this should scare them to death. Android and iOS are good enough - iOS by no means has any serious advantages anymore.

This poses a serious problem for Apple, as companies like Samsung and HTC can iterate much faster than Apple can. The discrepancies between flagship iOS/Android phones is only going to increase even further - something I already predicted 2 years ago, and was laughed away for by the Apple faithful.

Normal people don't give a rat's ass about what software their phones run. They go into a store, hold up a few phones, and pick what they like, software be damned. There are people like you and I who do, but we are a minority.

It absolutely baffles me how people still beat the "Android only wins because it's cheap"-argument when the most popular Android phones are virtually always as expensive as, or often even more expensive, than iPhones. This argument is so old and clearly factually wrong I don't understand why people continue to spread it.

Samsung and ... HTC??? HTC is not doing well at all. It can't take on Samsung, let alone Apple, and it will probably probably drown in the small sea of small up-and-coming Android manufactures. It's not a good day to be HTC, RIM or Nokia.

Apple makes by far most the money. They could easily slash prizes if they should choose to, even sell at a loss (and make profit with iTunes sales). They don't, which means they probably like the situation as it is now.

They may say they create the devices they themselves want to use, but it's obviously about the Benjamins and they chose, what they think, the best way to get the most money. Cheaper phones will get them more marketshare, but the margins will be much lower and the buyers probably won't spend much in the iTunes store.

Don't forget Steve, when the iPhone was introduced, said he was aiming for 1% marketshare, which leads to believe that with 1% they'd make money.

You are so right MOS6510. I also live in the Netherlands but I also don't recognize Tom's story. I see iPhone's waaay more than Samsung's. At least by a factor 2:1. And also his "people regard Samsung as quality" is also a statement that I don't recognize. I really never have heard anyone saying that!